Myspace
MySpace is a free social networking internet service which enables its users to communicate by means of posting blogs, using an internal e-mail system, and posting messages to web forums. Users can also upload and display photos and other information on their own profile. For promotional purposes, many mainstream music groups also have pages on the site. MySpace was founded in July 2003 by Tom Anderson and a small team of programmers. It was originally owned by Intermix Media, which was bought in July 2005 for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other media enterprises). Years before its current state, the MySpace.com domain was used for a free virtual hard-drive site that shut down after the burst of the dot-com bubble. Website description Common uses Some may sign up just to gain access to more interesting parts of profiles (extra pictures, blogs etc). Others see it as a way of meeting people to date, gaining new friends, and/or keeping in touch with old friends and acquaintances. MySpace is also a valuable promotional tool. Users can post bulletins, blogs, or send "event invitations" to their friends regarding parties, concerts, and other events. Musicians and their fans also use the site to promote artists, performances, and album releases. Technical problems Many people are attracted to MySpace because it allows any user to uniquely express him or herself by customizing the layout and colors of his or her profile. This ability can sometimes cause problems when inexperienced or malicious web users write HTML. For example, many profiles have clashing colors and/or unreadable text. Occasionally, although very rarely, profiles have been known to freeze certain browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, due to malformed HTML and/or CSS or users placement of videos and/or Flash animations on their profiles. A XSS vulnerability was recently revealed on Kuro5hin in an article called "MySpace: A Place for Dolts".http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/16/72023/9428 There have also been complaints by many users that the site will go down without warning for hours on end for "maintenance". The most recent cause for maintenance was due to a exploit allowing javascript in CSS tags. This "worm" type script caused any logged in user to automatically add the exploiter to the viewers friends-list, and modify the heroes section to include ", but most of all, Samy is my hero". The security seems suspect at best, but this proves to be no more than a minor annoyance to users of MySpace. New additions Each month MySpace introduces a new feature for its users. For example, in October 2005, MySpace introduced a "change your top 8" feature, which changes the first 8 friends that appear in the user's friends box. Celebrities In interviews many actors, models and singers have said that they themselves have had or have profiles on MySpace, like Jason Mraz, John B, Brooke Hogan, Eric West, Dane Cook,Kevin Pereira and Rich Cronin. See also * Friendster * Orkut * Classface External links *MySpace.com *[http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/14/126233&tid=172 Cross-Site Scripting Worm Floods MySpace], article at Slashdot Category:Social networking Category:Weblog sites Category:Virtual communities